


The conference

by Zoya113



Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Hurt and comfort, Melissa goes feral dot com, Mr Davidson is doing fine tho I think it’s okay, This kinda ran like an episode of a tv show, We lose bill to the coffee, tw panic attack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:27:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23854567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoya113/pseuds/Zoya113
Summary: CCRP has been given one week to finish an assignment for the Friday night conference. At the same time Beanies is dipping financially. Paul feels like it’s up to him to fix both of these things, which is a lot of stress for one man
Relationships: Bill & Paul Matthews, Emma Perkins/ Paul Matthews, Paul Matthews & Melissa
Comments: 7
Kudos: 46





	The conference

**Author's Note:**

> This took me a while to write bc I’ve been super busy so I think the atmosphere is off lmao but u get the idea

“You’re looking pretty tired,” Paul offered up a small smile when Emma finally got home from her third overtime shift that week.

“Yeah, I’m so sick of busting my ass for this stupid job,” Emma sunk down onto the couch, rubbing her lower back. “It should be illegal to be on your feet all day.”

Paul made his way over from the kitchen to sit beside her on the couch. “So why’re you doing this again?” Emma hadn’t really been too open about it. “We have the money, you know. It’s not like we need over time hours.”

“Mmm, well,” Emma let out a deep breath, her hands moving on to rub her forehead now that Paul’s hand was working on her back. “Beanies is having a total recession, a ‘slight inconvenience’ as Nora puts it.” She stretched out her leg, one hand gripping at the scar on her thigh. “And it’s not like I love my job, but I am not getting let go before fucking Hayley.”

“Oh.” That wasn’t very comforting. He knew Emma got anxious about financial things too. She wasn’t letting it show but he knew through the simple things, the way she was picking at her skin again and tugging at her hair. Sometimes she would let out frustrated groans in her sleep. “Well hey, its basically minimum wage and you work like six days a week. Nora can cut a few more people before it gets to you.” He didn’t know that, actually, but it seemed like what Emma expected him to say.

“Hey, it’s not your problem. Don’t look so sad,” she thwacked a hand into his shoulder.

“Well, I wish I could help,” he frowned. “Maybe I should start offering coffee runs to the whole office?”

She snorted. “Maybe.”

The fact she had no quip to back it up with made him uneasy. “Hey Em?”

“Yeah?” She turned her sleepy eyes to him.

“I’ll keep an eye out for ideas okay?”  
——————————————————————

“Good morning Paul!” Melissa sung out her usual cheery morning greeting as he passed by on his way to his office.

Bill met him halfway, Charlotte at his side. “Morning, Paul.”

“Hi,” he gave a slight wave, shifting his weight back and forth. “What’s happening?” They were standing in his way.

“Oh, Mr Davidson just called a quick announcement,” he sipped at his coffee, and Paul felt the need to remind him about Beanies all of a sudden.

“What do you think it’s about?” Charlotte wondered aloud.

Bill gestured with his cup towards Melissa who was spinning her chair back and forth in half circles. “Well she probably knows what’s up and she seems happy.”

“I think she’s just fiddling,” Charlotte suggested. “I think it helps her think.”

Paul nodded. He agreed with that theory. Mostly because Melissa was just never not happy.

“Hey, you guys know what this is about?” Ted asked as he strolled over. Coffee from the coffee machine.

“If you guys have coffee now then I can’t get you anything from Beanies when I go,” he pointed.

“Okay?” Ted gave a slight shake of his head. “The meeting?”

Bill shrugged, it would only be found out once Mr Davidson came back from his office.

“Morning, gang!” Their boss exclaimed loudly, swinging open his office door. “Hope you’re all ready for this Friday!”

There was a silence followed by a confused murmur, schedule pages flicking open to find what was happening. Even Paul, who was fairly good with dates didn’t remember what was happening. He glanced to Melissa, who was flicking frantically through her planner. She didn’t know either 

“What, what’s the silence for?” Mr Davidson asked. “The Friday night conference?”

Everyone went quiet, too ashamed to admit they might have forgotten something important until Melissa spoke up. “Mr Davidson, I don’t have anything in your calendar for Friday.” Once she had spoken up everyone else began to murmur their concerns too.

“What? I told you all about it,” Mr Davidson raised an eyebrow. “Three months ago? We had a conference on the fourteenth.”

Everyone turned back to Melissa who was flicking pack through her book now. “Uh, all it says here was ‘make announcement’ at ten, but it’s crossed out and instead it says ‘haircut?’”

Mr Davidson, leant back against the wall for a second, his eyes rolling to the side. “Oh yeah. Huh. I remember that now. Did I not ask you to reschedule that?”

“No, sir. If I remember correctly you came back and spoke about how soft your hair was until you forgot about the meeting,” her fingertips smoothed over her cheekbone, starting to tap.

“Oh yep. Well that’s going to be a problem then because we have a conference Friday night, seven, mark it down before we forget again.”

“Uh, where?” Ted asked.

“Melissa, where’d you book it?” Mr Davidson gesture to her with his coffee cup.

She blinked. “Sir, you didn’t us about this. I haven’t got anything booked.”

He winced. “Well, can you take care of that before Friday? Catering, venue, entertainment and stuff?” He nodded before turning back to the hall as Paul watched all the colour drain from Melissa’s face. “Accounting, keep an eye on finances I’ll email you the budget, IT, I’m sending you some very important information, I need you to pull together a powerpoint or a spread sheet or whatever it is you do with it. Marketing, go ahead and get a news letter out to our clients and investors, okay? Let’s get to work, gang, let’s have a great day!”

Charlotte let out a heavy sigh. “I’ll have to cancel something with Sam,” she laced her fingers together.

“Come on. We’re about to waste an hour trying to fit time into our schedule for this anyways. Let’s get started,” Bill lead them back down to the IT room. 

Paul was assuming it wouldn’t be a big assignment, but that changed when he saw that the email from Mr Davidson came as an attachment, not as text. 

It was a three page long description. Holy shit. 

“What even is this for?” There weren’t any particular key words, he’d actually have to sit down and read it. 

He already had a work schedule for today, he didn’t see where he could fit this in.  
“Hey, does anyone want anything from Beanies?” That was his go to when he was stressed. And maybe it’d help Emma’s problem too.

Charlotte was too dazed to answer. It was quite the workload. 

“Uh, I’ll just get you the regular and you can pay me back okay?” He didn’t wait too long for a response, he was stressed and that meant he’d like to go see Emma. 

“Uh, Hey Paul?” Melissa took the phone away from her ear when he walked by. “Where are you going?”

“Did you want something from Beanies?” 

“Oh sure. Just a peach tea or a chamomile or something. Be quick though right? I saw the email, that’s long.” 

He gave her a thumbs up. Being around frantic people made him uneasy. Besides, when he got back perhaps Bill or Charlotte might’ve been able to summarise it for him. 

Beanies was empty when he arrived, it looked like it hadn’t seen much business all day. And yet Emma was still wiping down tables, trying to make herself useful.  
“Hi, Paul,” she gave an almost-smile, brushing their fingers together when he approached but she moved over to the counter instead. “The usual?”

“Uh, yeah,” he nodded. “And for Melissa and Bill and Charlotte too.” 

“Does Ted want anything?” She asked.

He hadn’t asked Ted, but he nodded. Emma must’ve been keeping track of her sales. “Yeah. Can you get a latte for Mr Davidson too?” 

She nodded, easing up. “Yeah. Sure thing.” She started right away. “You might not wanna hang around today. Nora might get pissed if she sees me not working.” 

“I don’t think it’s that bad of a recession,” Paul said, hoping it might help. 

“Yeah? Well you should’ve seen Nora when she did the books the other day. Zoey actually told me to get out of here and I don’t know if it was for Nora’s sake or mine.” 

Paul let out a mumble, nothing else to offer. 

Emma didn’t speak either until she gave over the drinks. “Here.” She didn’t comment when Paul tipped a bit more than usual. He didn’t think it’d do much, it would go straight back into Emma’s pocket. He just didn’t know what to do to make her stop frowning like that. 

When he placed Melissa’s tea on her desk she could only give him a smile of thanks, her phone wedged between her ear and her shoulder so she could mark down notes in her planner. They were made with colourful boarders and pastel highlighters and multicoloured sticky notes. He always thought he could rely on her to be a good indicator of stress levels, for him at least. And if she still had time to make pretty notes, he still had time to work things out. 

The IT room was silent as he eased his way into his chair. Bill and Charlotte didn’t even give him funny looks when he gave them their drinks.“I just don’t see how we can fit in enough time to finish this, does Mr Davidson even know what he’s asking for?” Bill was rubbing his forehead. Charlotte had nothing to say, her jaw was slightly ajar though and her eyes squinted as she stared at her screen. Paul settled down again in his chair with a heavy sigh. He stared at the page, but nothing went through his brain. In fact, seeing that much text bunched up put him off everything. He just had to tell himself that once Charlotte and Bill had made a start on it he would be able to take it from there, but he had Emma to worry about, there was no time for Mr Davidson’s short notice. “Paul, Charlotte, I’ve emailed you. I split everything up so we have a bit more order. Paul, I gave you one of the smaller sections so do you think you could handle pulling it all together and fixing the formatting at the end?” “Yeah, sure.” That sounded good. A little bit easier to follow it now. So he went on with his usual schedule. In fact, it seemed like everyone was going on with their daily schedules. There was no time to pull together a powerpoint, and when it hit lunch time, it seemed it wasn’t quite time to start giving up their breaks for it either. When Paul stood up, the others followed. And they all left to the break room to fetch their lunches, content to think about the problem rather than act on it. For today at least. They were headed up when he heard his friends familiar voices. Ted’s gruff and almost rancorous scolds and Melissa’s slightly higher than usual whines and questioning groans. “We don’t have room in the budget for a fee like that, you’ll just have to pick somewhere else,” he shook his head. “For some god damn reason Kara from marketing made the information fliers on coloured paper and that’s not gonna be cheap.” “But no one wants to book anything in on such short notice! We won’t be able to find anything if we leave it any longer than today!” Melissa tried. “We’re going to have to pay extra, I can’t avoid that.” “Well, you’ll have to find a way,” Ted shrugged, gesturing to Paul as they came up. “I’m going on break, just look at a different venue.” He fell in step with Charlotte, leaving Melissa behind in the hallway with a distraught, stressed look. “What’d you bring for lunch?” Bill took his attention away with the question, and all he saw was Melissa scurrying back to her desk. “What I always bring,” he answered, not sure where that question had come from. No one spoke much in the break room except Ted, who was grunting too much about how much the office was already running up numbers. Melissa didn’t come to the break room until the last ten minutes of his break, racing in, still on the phone. “Uh yes, this Friday,” everyone fell silent to listen in. “I know, it’s sort of late, I’m sorry. Do you still think you can do it?” She grabbed a container of yoghurt, closing the fridge door with her hip so she could turn around and walk right back out at the same time. “Uh, yes. I thought there’d be a fee. Hold on. I’ll have to run that by our accounting team first. Can I call you back?” “I think she’s going to lose her mind,” Bill’s eyes were wide, being the only one to speak up. “Remember the time Alice got put in that group assignment but no one did the work?” He nudged Paul to bring him back to the present. “Oh yeah. I remember that.” Only slightly. The tension right now was quiet, but it was building. It was like CCRP was starting to fill up with water. And it wasn’t like home was a viable escape right now. Emma was quiet too when she got home at her usual time. She told Paul she was going off to go clear the kitchen, which was already pretty clean. All she did was switch the sugar bowl to the other side of the kitchen and rearrange the cupboards. “Paul, do you think we should clean out the fridge soon? This jam has been here since last year. We never use it,” she showed him the jam she was talking about.  
“Why don’t you come sit on the couch, Emma?” He said instead. “Let’s just watch some TV. We’ll order something to eat later,” he suggested. “We can just make something here, Paul. I don’t wanna spend the money, delivery fees suck.” He held his hands to his eyes for a second to rub them. He had heard too much about fees today. “I’ll cook something then. I just have to sit down. It’s kinda been a long day. Mr Davidson just gave us all this work today that we have to get done by Friday. There’s this conference we just heard about.” “This Friday?” Emma flopped down besides him, sighing into his side. “I’ll be working overtime that night. We won’t have to worry about dinner then.” His stomach stirred talking about money like that. He put his hand on her back, sliding his hand up and down. “Hey, we don’t have to worry about skipping meals just yet. We both still have jobs,” he tried to joke, and he was glad when she calmed down. “Yeah. You’re right. For now at least.” ————————————————————————————————

“Here’s your coffee.” Paul didn’t expect Melissa to ask for coffee. Usually it made her sick. Really sick, too. “Won’t this…?” She took a small sip. “Yeah, but I don’t have time for stomach aches today,” she declared as if her body would listen. “I’ve been here since eight. I thought if I started early I’d be able to join you guys for lunch today,” she joked. “Did you take work home last night?” He asked. “You look kind of bad.” “Thanks for that Paul,” she pursed her lips in, making a cheers motion with her cup. “I just forgot to brush my hair today. I’m kinda running purely off the book right now,” she put down her coffee cup to lift up her planner because her other hand was typing away on her phone, already sorting something out. “You should get on with that powerpoint, we need it done by Thursday at four. Do you think it’ll be ready?” “Uh,” he didn’t know. “Probably. Yeah. We can do that.” He dropped off everyone else’s coffee’s. A slightly bigger order today. If the group order got big enough it officially became PA business. As much as he’d like to bring in more sales for Emma, he couldn’t take a half hour out of her day like that. He felt like he was already between a rock and a hard place. Charlotte didn’t look like she had slept much either. But he didn’t know if that had to do with the powerpoint or one of Charlotte’s many other issues. “Where’s Bill?” He asked. “Oh, he’ll be back soon. He’s arguing with Ted,” she answered like that wasn’t as shocking as it was. “What, arguing?” He didn’t pull out his seat, just in case he had to go diffuse things or help Bill out. But he didn’t have to, they were coming down the hall already, and once again Ted was scolding. “We can’t afford that. It isn’t in the budget! Melissa’s about to spend half a grand on late notice fees. I’m not letting you get some program licence just so you can do some formatting thing or whatever!” Ted snapped. “Well its what Mr Davidson wanted! What else do you want us to do?” Bill tried. Ted shrugged. “You guys at the tech wizzes, you work it out! Just fill out this form, send it off to Melissa.” He shoved the papers over, standing in the doorway. “Wow guys,” he changed the topic. “You all look like shit.” “How’re you looking so calm?” Paul frowned. Ted’s suit was ironed, his hair combed, he even looked like he had time to shave this morning. He gave a smirk, maybe he had been waiting for someone to say that. “I think you have bigger problems on your hands. I for one, have another argument scheduled with Melissa, and it’s very hard to argue about money with a girl who can’t even understand fractions.” “Fractions are hard,” Charlotte admitted, maybe it was just to send some sympathy Melissa’s way. “I could never argue with Melissa.” “It’s very hard,” Paul confirmed. “Her eyes get so big,” Bill added. Not that any of them had much experience upsetting her. I n fact, Paul actually had the fortunate luck of coming across this argument on his way to the break room. The tables had been turned this time, every time Ted would open his mouth Melissa would just shut him up. “Do you have any idea how the real world works Ted? You can’t just book things without paying a fee if it’s going to be this late. And every day you tell me I can’t book a certain venue the fee only gets bigger.” “Melissa-“ “Ugh, I’m sorry for yelling, Ted, but we don’t have a choice! Just try and find some room in the budget okay?” She hurried off. She didn’t look like she would make it to lunch again today. The coffee had clearly kicked in, she was shaking her hand as she spoke just to avoid staying still. Usually, he didn’t eat his lunch in the break room. He would take it back down to his own office so he didn’t feel out of place. But the break room was half empty, and had a far less stressful vibe than his office. Until Melissa in he coffee fuelled state burst in, scanning the room before pointing her finger at the woman opening the fridge. “Sarah, Mr Davidson needs you in his office, and Thomas, are those papers signed yet? Because I need them signed, I’m not seeing much movement in here! We should all be moving more! Okay! I’ve gotta go!” She didn’t even grab her lunch. 

He took her yoghurt from the fridge to take it to her. It made him feel useful at least. His head was still to tense to make room for a project. He had gone through it at home last night and at least made the headings for his section of the slideshow, so that counted he guessed. “You forget this?” 

She didn’t look up from her keyboard. “Oh. I’m not hungry.” 

“Yeah, but you didn’t have breakfast. All you’ve had all day is coffee and that makes you sick,” he tried to explain. 

“I don’t have time today to get sick,” she repeated. “I’ll eat when I get home.” 

“Did you eat last night?” 

Her eyes flicked to the side in thought but her hands kept at her keyboard. “I think so.”

Melissa wasn’t someone who skipped meals on purpose, she just never seemed to have a big appetite. 

“Are you just ignoring your job by helping everyone else?” She asked, picking her yoghurt container up in one hand and tearing the lid off with her teeth. “Caus if you wanna help me it’d be great if you could do your work!” 

Okay. So it seemed like Melissa was going to be a bit off limits until next week if he wanted to keep calm. He had already taken his trip to Beanies, so now he just found himself wandering around the main floor. 

“Hey Ted?” He never tended to go to him voluntarily. But he didn’t want to seem lost after Melissa had just raised her voice at him. 

“Leave me alone man. I’ve got numbers to run,” Ted waved him away.

“Oh. Okay.” Well he didn’t really know anyone else well enough up here to talk to them, so he made his way back to his table, trying to ignore the tense silence.

“Hey Paul?” Bill called. “Charlotte and I were going to stay back late tonight. See if we could try get it done tonight, you wanna join us?” He asked hopefully. 

He gave a slight nod. If they could knock it all out it’d be way less stressful, maybe he could get a safe spot back for him because home wasn’t much better either right now. He just hoped Emma would be okay at home. “Sure. How late?” 

“Seven, maybe?” Charlotte suggested. “I’d like to be home for dinner.” 

“Hey, it’ll be our lucky day if we get paid for overtime this week. Ted’s going crazy over in accounting,” Bill put in. 

The office didn’t really empty out as it usually did. Only a small chunk of people left around five, accountants mostly, Mr Davidson too. Definitely not Melissa. 

It was a waste to stay. Every time he took his mind off the project he though about Emma. Probably at home right now in panic mode. And he couldn’t do anything to help her from here. 

“Do you think Mr Davidson knows he’s asked for both style A and B?” Charlotte broke the silence of their office. 

“Probably,” Bill answered. 

Quiet again. 

“What should we do?” Charlotte asked. 

“Both, I suppose?” Bill shrugged. “I’ll do type A on my half. You do type B.” 

“What about me?” Paul asked. “Type A or B?” 

Bill couldn’t answer that. Or maybe he did, but Paul just hadn’t been able to focus lately. When he got home that time had already erased itself from his head. All he knew was he was standing above Emma who was curled up under the sheets already. 

“Emma?” 

“I had to take work off tonight,” she cut right to the chase, not looking up at him. “Because my leg hurt too much.” 

“You’re probably still more valuable than Hayley,” he knelt down besides the bed, his fingers running through her hair.

“I bet Hayley hasn’t cancelled any shifts,” Emma mumbled, a slight sigh in response to his touch. “And that’s a big red mark on the roster. That’s practically a target.”  
“Did Nora say she was gonna fire someone?” He pressed his head to her back to rest it for a second. 

“No. I just- I don’t wanna not have money, you know? I hate the feeling of being tight on cash. I mean it’s fine when you’re travelling because you can’t buy much. But when you have a house it’s just weird. You have like, taxes and shit. It just worries me.” 

He stood up as she spoke, pacing drowsily to his side of the bed. “Well, taxes are less scary than a musical apocalypse, right? And we survived that.” 

“We did not survive that,” Emma snorted, wrapping her arms around him and planting a quick kiss on his lips. “But I get what you’re going for. Thanks, Paul.”  
———————————————————

“And the espresso is for who?” Emma didn’t even pour the cup. “It’s Melissa.” “Yikes, I thought caffeine made her sick?” Emma followed up. Paul nodded. “She was a little hyper yesterday. And she’s already high strung.” Emma winced, a small laugh coming out. “Glad I’m not gonna be other there when she gets this down,” she added an extra shot. “Sounds like she needs it!” “Don’t we all?”Emma capped Melissa’s drink before taking a sip of it herself. “Oh we do!” Paul snorted, “don’t let Nora catch you doing that.”  
“God,” she wiped the foam off her upper lip. “Yup. Hey, to keeping the boss happy, no matter what, huh?” She made a cheers motion with Melissa’s cup, but fortunately this time she did not drink it. “Mmm. No matter what.” His coffee scalded his throat when he drank it down. “Talk to you after work?” “Mmm, I’ll be home on time today. No more fucking my leg up,” she shrugged. “Now go finish mission impossible!” Mission impossible was certainly right. His usual gauge for testing how stressed he should be -Melissa- was drinking espresso and scratching down notes on a pad of paper instead of her planner. “Here you are,” Paul handed her drink over the counter and she chugged it down with an unpleasant shudder at the taste and the boiling temperature. “Time to get some work done, Paul! Get to your office!” “Right.” Melissa was still off limits. “Sorry, yeah.” “It’s Wednesday, Paul, don’t procrastinate!” She snapped, and it sounded funny in her high voice. “Did you get that coffee Mr Davidson asked for?” He nodded. “Yup. I’ll take it to him now.” Keep the boss happy, that’s what Emma said. 

Mr Davidson’s room was probably the quietest in the whole office. It was actually like stepping into a completely different building. He was leant back in his chair skimming through his emails and humming. “Oh, Paul! My coffee!”

“Uh, here,” he placed it down on his table. “How are things going?” 

“Ugh, things are going crazy Paul. I’m telling you,” his smile broke into a grimace. 

“Yeah. It’s pretty busy in IT,” he rubbed his arm. But they were nearly done! 

Mr Davidson’s hand brushed his hair back over his shoulder. “You won’t believe what it’s like up here. Melissa booked me a haircut.” 

He blinked. “Haircut?” Wasn’t she handling catering and venues? Entertainment or something? 

“Yes! This afternoon. I don’t even need a haircut! What’d she do that for?” He hugged, his fingers playing with his curls miserably. 

Maybe Melissa was actually going crazy. 

“Paul!” Ted stooped him on his way out. He was getting a little antsy now, he wasn’t making as much progress as he should’ve. “Can you do be a favour?” 

“Huh?” He handed home his chai iced tea off the tray. 

“What?” He paused to look at it before taking a sip and pulling his wallet out to pay him back. “I didn’t ask for this. You buttering me up or something?” 

“Uh. No. Sorry. I just thought you’d like a drink, okay? Uh, what did you want to say?” 

Ted took a very long swig of his tea. “You’re close with Melissa right? Can you talk to her for me? Tell her there’s just no way we can fit an extra 2K in the budget?” He patted him on the back before he could actually answer. “You’re a real pal, man.” 

Oh he was not sure about that. She was still on the phone. He wouldn’t bother her just yet.

When he finally got to his chair he noticed his breathing was tight. So tight that it took him a moment to notice that his coworkers were off the walls today. Racing back and forth between each other’s tables. 

“Paul, we have a problem,” Bill finally made the move to inform him. He noticed the three coffee cups at his table in addition to the frappe Paul had just bought him. As Emma would say, yikes.  
But before he could answer Melissa came in, still on the phone. 

She was just standing in the doorway, but her eyes kept flicking between all of them to inform them she did in fact need to talk to them. “No Sam, if I rang this number do you think I wanted to speak to you? Put Doug on. No, I don’t care, Sam! Put them on right now, or else.” 

There was a beat. 

“Yes, that is a threat! And what’re you gonna do about that, arrest me? Put Doug on the phone Sam I don’t have time to wait. Yeah, now that’s more like it.” She held her phone to her chest for a second. “Gang? Can you forward me the slideshow you’ve been making? Mr Davidson wants me to coordinate it with decoration. I’ve just gotten out of his office, so where are we? I hope it’s someplace good.”

“Uh sure, what we have so far. We can do that,” Paul nodded. “Right Bill?” Assuming the problem at hand was not that their emails had stopped working. Even then a USB would do. 

Bill scratched his neck. “Well, I was just finishing up the real time feedback for the survey and-“

“Well here’s some real time feedback for you. Work faster. 

I’ve got a back pocket idea right now that maybe we could just-“ 

“Great. Keep it in your back pocket, Bill. Can you email it or not?” Melissa lifted her phone back to her ear to show she was done with this conversation.

“Uh. Yeah. Okay. I’ll get it to you.” 

“And Ted wanted me to tell you-“

“Tell Ted to get pissed, and it’s 3K now. I’m getting a restraining order if he tries to tell me to ‘make it work’ one more time. Anyways. Do your jobs.” She turned on her heels to rush back out, they could still hear her on the phone all the way down the hall. 

“Wow,” Charlotte tapped a light finger to her chin. That girl was Melissa, but certainly not the Melissa they were used to. 

“Sorry, Bill. What did you say that problem was?” Paul asked. It was easier to just focus on the PowerPoint than Melissa and Ted’s drama right now. 

Bill bit down on his lip. “Well just, I was finishing off my section when my computer crashed, and now I just have to-“

“No.” Paul stood up. Maybe it was all the coffee in his system but his heart was racing. They couldn’t just lose part of the project, not when they had to submit it by tomorrow, or Friday morning at the latest. He wasn’t sticking around to hear what Bill had to say. He just left. Back out into the hallway. He didn’t want to know. 

“If there isn’t room in the budget make one, Ted!” Melissa said, no, ordered.

“How!?” He growled

“Make some! Fire someone!” 

“There blood’ll be on your hands if I do!” 

“And if you complain to me again it’ll be your blood on my hands, do you have the message Ted?” There was a pause. “I love you Doug but I don’t think it’s any of your business how serious that threat was. You know what? Put Rob on the phone. I’ll ask him instead if you’re gonna tell me to calm down!” Melissa should probably not be allowed coffee after this. 

The office was the sound of shoes rushing across the floor and phones ringing and voices arguing and shouting. Where could he go? Not beanies, he’d been there once and the tension was just as thick. Definitely not his office, maybe just outside for a second where it was quieter. 

“Paul?” 

The voice was so gentle it almost took him by surprise, he glanced up, hand still clutching at his tie. “Bill?” 

“You didn’t look too good back there, Paul, are you okay?” Bill hovered a hand over his shoulder but didn’t touch him. 

“I’m okay,” he gulped. “What-what are we gonna do about uh, the PowerPoint?” 

Bill didn’t answer right away, like that wasn’t his biggest concern. “I can get it back, Paul. It was only a couple slides and a little bit of programming. I’ll just work through break and it’ll be all fine again okay?”

He nodded. “And then we’ll be just about done right?” He wanted a straightforward answer. 

“Yeah, bud. Charlotte’s all done. I’ll be finished by tonight and then it’s just up to you okay?” 

He had a couple slides left too. Then he just had to format them all together, make sure they all ran smoothly. Then he could give it to Melissa, and she would calm down, and he would calm down (slightly). 

But things just weren’t better. There was a silent moment of peace on his drive home, so he decided to loop around the block, but then he felt guilty about leaving Emma at home alone, so he doubled back, parked, and found himself running inside. 

“Hey Em?” Why was he breathless? She was just sitting on the couch, after all. 

“Yeah?” She was rubbing one hand over her bad leg. “You’re looking a little red, babe.” 

He rubbed his forehead, releasing the breath in his lungs, but for some reason his chest stayed tight. “Yeah.” His feet didn’t move from the door right away, he sucked in his lip, chewing on it. “Yeah, sorry.” A glass of water. That would help. It felt like there was a breath of air caught in his rib cage. “How was work?”

“Well, it was okay. It was a little busier than usual today but Nora was still pretty anxious so I don’t suppose we can be doing that much better,” she was pulling at strands of her hair. “Paul?” She paused when she saw him. “Are you okay?” 

One hand moved to his tie, loosening it so he could take in more air. When he opening his mouth that air stuck behind his ribs seemed to shoot right out an he clamped his mouth shut so it wouldn’t escape in the form of a shout. “No!” 

“Paul? Huh?” Emma stood up, limping over to the kitchen but he outpaced her, hands to his head he turned to face the wall at the other end of the kitchen. “Paul?” 

“I’m just so tired!” 

“What’s wrong, babe?” Her voice cracked as she hugged him from behind, he could feel her voice through his back. Her breath was warm on his skin. 

“Everything’s stressing me out, and I can’t take it anymore!” He snapped. 

“I’m sorry. Is that assignment stressing you out?” She stepped back to give him room when he shook his head. 

“I just feel like I’m the one doing everything, Emma! But at the same time I don’t have a single clue what I should be up to! And I’m stressed because you’re stressed and Melissa’s stressed and Bill’s stressed and everyone is! How am I not supposed to be stressed!?” He shook his hands, almost rattling them, his breathing was ragged and he couldn’t quite catch it. 

“Babe, I don’t want you worrying about me right now!”

“No but I am! You’ve been so freaked out lately I should help you!” He just didn’t know how. 

“Paul I’m telling you, you’ve probably saved my ass with the amount of coffee sales you’ve brought in from your office lately. I’d like to see Hayley’s boyfriend do that!” 

He wanted to laugh but he couldn’t. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to do, actually. Things were still exploding inside his head.

“You aren’t really looking too fresh, Paul. Do you wanna go to sleep or...?” Emma smoothed his fingers down his back. “Paul?” 

“I don’t want to go to this Friday thing! I’m going to lose my mind, Emma! If I have to step foot back in that office!” 

She sighed and hugged him close, mumbling something. “You’re almost done, Paul. Don’t you have to hand the slides in tomorrow?” 

“Yeah, Friday morning at the latest.” 

“Okay, and how much more do you have left?” She asked next. 

“Charlotte and Bill are going to hand the slides to me and I just have to fix it all up. By lunch. But I have all my other work to do too. And I still want to go buy some coffee from you, and even once I’m done everyone else will be so stressed!” He whimpered. 

“Who’s stressed?” Even with him pressed to the wall Emma kept her hands wrapped around him. 

He grumbled. “Everyone. And Melissa and Ted have been fighting all week, and she keeps yelling at me whenever I come down to Beanies, and they keep trying to drag me into it too.” 

Emma nodded. “Babe, well lets just not think about my job okay? You get your stuff done, and I’ll bring your coffee to you tomorrow, okay? It’ll all be gone by tomorrow night,” she promised. “Okay, Paul?”

His shoulders grew slack, and he leans against the wall, just letting Emma hold him. “Okay, Emma. Okay.”

———————————————————

All he had left to do was make sure everyone’s slides lined up, formatting, text size, all of that. It was going well, too. He had a pair of headphones on to block out all the noise of his frantic co workers. 

Emma was on her way as well, so everything would be okay. Today would hopefully be the end of his troubles if Emma was right, and he always trusted her to be right. 

Although even with the headphones on it was hard to ignore when Melissa practically kicked the door open. “We have a problem!” She was wearing heels today, not flats. Paul wasn’t quite sure if that was necessary, maybe heels just came with being dangerous, the extra few inches of height were probably good for intimidation. Her hair was tied up too, it was obvious she hadn’t had time to wash it properly.

“Huh? What?” No, no, not this again. He already found himself standing up like he was about to run away. 

“What? What’s wrong?” Charlotte followed up. “Is everything okay?” 

Melissa clicked her fingers at her as she spoke. “Don’t even think about taking your hands off the keyboard, we are very behind folks, and guess what. All week I have not been able to find anyone who wants to cater. And it’s tomorrow night.”

Paul sat back down, hoping Charlotte or Bill got it and would do the talking instead. But only silence followed. “Wait, I don’t get it. Why’re you telling us?” 

She blinked, looking pale. “Because you’re my friends and I’m just venting my frustration?” 

He almost forgot about that. Melissa was their close friend, and not a blood thirsty monster. Times were strange. “Oh. What’re you gonna do?” 

“Well Ted’s really putting his foot down. He’s only letting me spend so much. I say -clear option- we unionise against Mr Davidson,” she clapped her hands together, fingers lacing together tightly like she was waiting for permission. 

“That’s the easiest way out of this?” Bill’s jaw dropped. 

“Oh Melissa. You don’t meant that,” Charlotte tried to coo, but Melissa was stone-faced. 

“Well he’s not trying! I showed up to his house this morning and he wasn’t even ready for work! He was still in bed!” She scoffed like that was ridiculous. 

Did she just imply she had broken into his house? Paul didn’t think that was quite adding up. “Did you break and enter?” 

“Doug gave me permission. Not important, Paul. I’m talking about catering. Do I just kill myself? Then it’s not my responsibility right? Oh my god. You know that’s what everyone says in school. If one person dies during the exam everyone gets an A. I’m going to take one for the team, I’m serious. I’ve had it. My brain is actually going to shut down.” 

“Wow. Paul was not kidding when he said you snapped.” Emma’s voice brought the whole room to silence, or at least it silenced the noise in Paul’s head. “You look exhausted, Melissa.” 

She whipped around, jumpy. She looked like she hadn’t seen someone from the outside world all week. “What’re you doing here?” 

“Paul ordered coffee, so here I am. I did you a favour and put a couple extra shots of espresso in here. Drink up.” She picked up a cup from the tray and Melissa looked at it like she didn’t know what it was. 

“Paul, I can’t believe you could order and you still left the office for coffee,” she took a sip and at least this time she didn’t recoil at the taste. 

“Uh. It was my break!” He defended himself. 

“What’s the problem, Mel? You look like you’ve got one foot on the grave.” She patted her on the back, which really showed off how little the PA had slept recently because she almost dropped her coffee, and half of it splashed up onto her blouse when she grabbed at it. 

“Yes,” she mumbled, a petulant frown that tore down the sort of killer queen look she had been putting out. “In fact I think I have had it,” she sniffled, finishing off the rest of her coffee. “I gotta go,” she grumbled, one hand rubbing her watery eyes. “Gotta go find someone to cater!” She called out, raising her voice before she had even left the room. 

Emma took a sip of Paul’s coffee before handing it over to him, “wow. You weren’t joking.” 

“I’m sorry Emma. Melissa hasn’t been well,” Charlotte apologised. 

“I don’t think any of you have,” Emma’s jaw dropped. If he thought Emma had looked poor recently, they must’ve looked like hell. “Good luck trying to find someone to cater this late. How many people?”

“Eighty, ninety, I think?” 

“Eighty two!” Melissa called from down the hall as she was storming off. 

“Hey, why don’t we get beanies to cater?” The tapping of keyboards stopped, Emma’s brow raised, no one answered right away but the clicking of Melissa’s heels as she raced back down to the IT room. “What’d you say?” She had a hand wrapped around the doorframe so she would swing in. “Beanies?” Emma echoed. “Uh. I mean, yeah. You could, couldn’t you? You do big orders, and snack food, right? And Nora would probably agree right now wouldn’t she?” Everyone was looking at him, he hoped he hadn’t just said something dumb. He had never heard of any sort of catering from Emma before. But she was starting to give him one of those smiles that he loved so much. So he must’ve done something right. “Do you guys not do that?” Emma put down the rest of the tray. “Well. I bet Nora would be on board. We kinda need something like that.” “Wait, so you will? You’ll go ask Miss Nora?” Melissa was breathless, leaning all her weight against the doorway. “Yeah. Sure. I’ll get Beanies to cater.”  
Emma smiled, and Melissa smiled, and he smiled. And then, just like that, all of his problems seemed to vanish. —————————————————————  
Friday didn’t even seem to exist. With all that weight off his shoulders time passed by so quickly. The office was quiet again, some were even eager for the conference. Those eager, however, had not included his friends. Charlotte had called out sick that day. Bill had claimed the break room coffee pot as his own, Melissa had crashed at her desk and Ted was kind of going crazy. He was counting his numbers out loud, spinning around in his office chair. But Paul was fine. Things were back to normal, mostly.

The only thing slightly out of the ordinary was when Mr Davidson came in ten minutes late, letting out a loud complain about how he barely slept last night, that he had been so busy with the final organisations. Everyone had glared, Melissa had almost cried.Melissa had found a nice enough venue considering the short notice, big enough so the room wasn’t too crowded. Paul didn’t actually have to come, but there was no way he’d let Emma go alone, furthermore, the suit she got to wear for the conference was beautiful. He let Charlotte and Bill take he night off, if there were any technical issues he’d take care of them. Ted had showed up, though. Never the type to pass out on opportunities to find someone to flirt with. “Have you seen Melissa?” He asked when he met up with Paul. He shook his head. “Why?” “Well she sent me this huge apology spiel a couple minutes ago about yelling at me. I suppose she’s finally feeling the weight of her sins, huh?” He chuckled. “I asked if she was coming tonight, and she ever so eloquently put it ‘no, no, shut up. Don’t talk to me about it. Piss off, I’m not coming to that goddamn thing.” “Well I suppose that answers your question then?” Paul laughed, rubbing his neck. 

“Gentlemen,” Emma inserted herself into the conversation, stepping between the two men with a serving tray in her hands. “May I offer you anything to drink?” Paul’s smile cracked into a bigger grin. Ted snorted, stepping back. “I’ll leave you to it. I’ve got eyes on the hot chick in line for the coffee.” He clicked his tongue, winked, and backed off. “Thank you for this, Emma. I’m so glad this worked out,” he bumped his fists together. “I mean, surely Nora’s gotta be pretty happy. This is business right?” Emma nodded. “Big business. She gave me tomorrow off. How about you? You up for a weekend of doing absolutely nothing?” “I’m already on it,” he laughed. He knew this was a formal event, but not much was going to get between him and a hoodie tonight. If he got told off he still had his button up underneath, but he’d take those chances. “You look so beautiful in a suit,” Paul’s laugh came out in a stammer. He didn’t know what words he could describe her with, so he slipped a hand to the small of her back. “Excuse me sir, I am a professional on the clock right now,” she laughed, stepping back. “Oh, sorry! I thought-“ “Hey,” hey, it’s okay,” she lowered her voice down to a whisper, glancing over her shoulder to make sure Nora wasn’t watching her from the bar. She smoothed her free hand down her vest. “Just save that for home, okay?”


End file.
